AMD wants to leave the Barcelona (rather K10) debacle behind it as it moves closer to a newer processor architecture. This paves way for AMD to incorporate strong memory and system interface links. The G34 socket though touted to be a successor for the current socket 1207, is believed to be a standard socket for both enterprise and PC processors. AMD is working on a new CPU architecture codenamed 'Bulldozer'. Derivatives include monolithic 8-core and 12-core processors. The 12-core processor is now codenamed Magny-Cours, the 8-core part is called Sao Paulo. These processors could feature four parallel HyperTransport 3.0 interconnects, upto 12 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB L2 cache per core. It's known that AMD could be working on quad-channel DDR3 (both registered DDR3 under G3MX and unregistered). Socket G34 seems to have 1,974 pins.

The provision of four independent HyperTransport interconnects means that the fourth interconnect can be dedicated as a peer-to-peer interconnect between two sockets in a dual-socket setup, or its bandwidth split to form daisy-chains with multiple sockets. A prelude to AMD's Torrenza enterprise platform, which would allow use of several co-processors of different architectures including ClearSpeed to be embedded in workstations.

37 Comments on First Sketch of AMD Socket G34 Presented

I don't necessarily think more cores is better, but it would be kinda cool to have up to 12 cores in my rig to be honest! If modern OS and software can be patched to use it, then good, but otherwise from a gamer perspective, going beyond 2 or even 4 just doesn't make too much sense...I could be really wrong here, and I'm sure AMD won't leave the dual and quad core arenas alone, I'm sure they have some goodies up their sleeves, which I hope to see. I've been mostly Intel in my rigs, but AMD is a good company with good chips, and I think they'll hit hard and give Intel a serious run for their money.

So you think the 8-threaded Bloomfield is ok? Don't count cores, count the number of threads it can crunch simultaneously. With Intel working on a 6-core part, obviously they're going to weld two of them into a 12-core (24 thread) part.

Just from the name, high expectations have been made! Bulldozer; either it smashes down Intel's castle, or the Bull part of the name comes into play...
I hope the former happens, AMD needs some good chips and Intel needs the competition!
(On a side note, the Pentium Pro was rectangular, and that was an awesome chip :D)

by: Dark_WebsterIf what I saw was correct, Nehalem only has 256KB of L2 cache. Yeah I know that Nehalem has less L2 cache but perhaps it will be better optimized than AMD's counterparts.

Let's wait and see... I hope that AMD can compete with Intel with this new architecture.

Considering their current architecture, it appears that AMD has been working on this thing for a long time. I wouldn't look to the past phenoms when comparing this CPU, it looks like AMD is trying to make some sort of statement with those supposed specs.

AMD has been working on Socket G34 code name “:respect:Bulldozer” Micro-Architecture ever since the beginning of 2003. The K10 and K10.5 is just an upgrade from its former brother the K8. This has been AMD’s intention all along to prolong and upgrade the K8 as much as possible before moving to something completely new.

The Bulldozer design is said to be a completely different architecture built from the ground up as AMD likes to put it (Nothing to do with K8). The K8 served its time quite nicely but it was time to move to something new and faster.

It’s also said to be more than 2 to 4 times faster in a clock-4-clock environment.

Also AMD’s other design called Fusion will have nothing to do with Bulldozer. Both are different in design and meant for a different purpose from what I’ve found out.